u/jjs2690 - Thank you for the cool Kaweco Sport postcard! Did you see they released a bronze sport model? I was really confused when I was looking at pens and it was like $200 USD. I thought to myself, wow...FPs have really jumped in price recently. I had mistaken it for the brass model..haha.
u/feellikebeingajerk - Thank you for the Pride card! With the extended community under attack by folks that perpetuate lies and fear we have to come together even closer now. Stay safe my friend.
u/Chamiponvilla - Thank you for the magic eye postcard and the neat Godzilla sticker. I am a big espresso fan and like to have some shots on the weekend.
u/mypetitmal - Things are going slower now, I am enjoying my extended holiday and hanging out with my puppies. I hope things even out for you also. Stay safe out there.
u/Jennnnnnnnifer8n - Thanks for sending me day 119 of your year of postcards. I don't think there is anything weird with smelling your BF. I like the smell of my dogs and will often sniff them.
u/stawberryForestLady - Thank you for the cute Iceland poppies postcard :D I am having a good day.
u/AngelofTheNorth - Thank you for telling me about your favourite place in your town. I like to go to the beach with my dogs earlier in the morning and this red ball is for my youngest dog.

To be clear I understand the reason people choose to parse and gdkp. It just seems like using third party data collection of an incomplete set of player data to currate who gets to participate in group content is going to obviously inspire people to bridge the gap with purchased gold.
Let's say in a perfect world we can get blizzard to address the issue at its core. What would that look like?
I personally think you'd have to divide servers by a combination of game time and gear score. Maybe blizzard starts collecting their own parse data to render wow logs obsolete.
Group the tryhard players on servers as determined by their player data and game time together so the need for wow logs and gdkp vanishes.
It'd be an interesting exercise in having people recognize the scale of how many share their play style.
For hardcore players it may be impossible to push content because the amount of people who would actually care about parse without the presence of casuals would be so low. There might be too few people on try hard servers to create groups. Which would put into perspective the degree of gatekeepering that such a minority of the wotlk community leverages on the average player.
Inversely the casuals would take a lot longer to clear content and if they got too competetive their game data would push them into the try hard servers. So it'd be a weird place where expectations are low, but at least grouping wouldn't be dictated by parse data anymore, and gdkp would have low utility in such an environment.
Idk. Just a simulation my brain is flopping its way through. What do you all think would address the issue without introducing wow token?
Edit: Tossed the word salad a little, for taste.

So if you've seen my posts I've been on a heck of a journey. Right now though I'm stuck because I need to effectively communicate with a narcissistic sociopath.
I moved my baby back home (15 minutes from his dad's house) last month to care for my mother who died 2 weeks ago from stage 4 cancer. We thought she had longer.
Anyways during this time I'm not working. Not receiving child support, looking for ways to make money, and after she passed, finding a new home, and still being the active parent in my kids life.
By active I mean taking beach trips, going to the park, etc. All dad does is piggyback when I plan things and when he has my son they just hang out all day in the apartment. His place is often more dirty than I'd want my son to be in, the biggest issue being laundry. Not normal laundry, I'm talking my son HAS a room there that is not set up, everything still in boxes with an entire floor of dirty clothes for the past YEAR AND A HALF. At least 10 trash bags of dirty gross clothes. And that's just my son's "room".
The issue at hand, a month ago BD asked me for 1100 bucks to get a car. I said sure and when you sell old car, pay me back whatever you get for it and call it even. He got 800 2 weeks ago and sent me 200 of it. I asked him to put the other 600 on our credit card so I know I'll have money for the summer to do things with my son since I'm not working. I went to look yesterday since now the chaos has stopped and he NEVER PUT IT ON THERE. I confronted him and the lies and excuses start. He even said I GAVE it to him.... yeah. He said he's been slowly putting it on there 200 a month to which I said that's just YOUR credit card payment that isn't my money. You never transferred it you blew it. I told him the consequences of this are that he needs to complete our sons room, and find a way to make up for the fact that our son now has no summer. I'm finding ways to still afford stuff but he is not invited to piggy back when I plan something and needs to actually be an active parent.
He is having a meltdown now because he came over today at nap time. Slept for 2 hours while I cleaned my house and then left before the baby even woke up. He's calling me yelling saying he doesn't get why everyone (his mom and i) think he's the biggest POS in the world and he's trying his hardest.
My question, how do I proceed to move on so we stop fighting but still get him to understand that things have to change or else I'm filing for custody and child support without him completely playing a victim and lashing out? He does love his son he just is such a bare minimum dad. Am I being an ahole, should I just accept who he is and move on, or should I stay firm despite the fact it's gonna cause him to freak out?

Hi! I’d love to tell you my name when we talk. I’m originally from Africa, currently living in the UK where i’m studying toward a PhD in law. I like playing games, any kind, board games, card games, word games. I also like movies, comedies particularly. I like action comedies as well. I like dad jokes and puns, if you have any, please share with me. I’m an introvert, and a homebody. I like trying new things though, new foods especially, and seeing new places. I can understand some basic french and spanish, if you speak either or both then maybe you can teach me and improve my proficiency. I like music, i sing. I was learning to play the guitar at some point but gave it up cause it hurt my fingers too much. I would love to learn to play the piano.
Ultimately i’m looking for a relationship, but i would like to first connect with someone and be friends and then let something grow out of it. I’m not looking to jump into anything. I like funny, kind and considerate people. Please be able to hold a conversation. If you just respond to my questions without asking me any or bringing up new conversation topics, that’s not holding a conversation. People tend to do this, which is usually how the conversation ends. I’m open to anyone ages 29-35 from anywhere. If we like each other i’m sure we’ll work our way around distance. Looking forward to hearing from you.

u/melhen16 - Thanks for the card welcoming summer & the stickers!
u/awachob - Thanks for the card & stickers. It’s better than I imagined. It’s basically frame worthy!
u/agrajag159 - Unfortunately it’s been very warm here lately. But I guess it is summer so it’s to be expected. I’m not a fan of heat. For one I’ve been fighting sap on my car ever since it got warm. For two, I sweat like a hog in the summer, so I prefer winter fully.
u/rennbrig - Thanks for the card from the Cherokee nation!
u/blue-wanderer-quartz - Thanks for reaching me about black eyed Susan’s. I didn’t know that. Sunflowers are my favorite flower though so it’s cool to see others in the same family.
u/stormegeton - Thanks for letting me know about your dog. 14, that’s amazing for a bigger dog. I hope you have many more years of cuddles. Also I LOVE labs. They have such a kind easy going nature.
u/shipping_addict - Thanks for the mini card!
u/pinkpengin - I love the kindness card! It’s such a cool idea you had!
u/strawberryforestlady - Thanks for the bee card & the fact. I didn’t know that until I got your card!
u/championvilla - Thanks for the bright card!
u/mamastrawb - Thanks for the card & random stickers. I absolutely love them!
u/iridiumviper - I love chocolate water ice! That’s funny you had to google it. Yeah most places would call it Italian ice. I grew up in Philly tho & we called it water ice. I like chocolate! That’s pretty much it. I’ve had others I like such as strawberry & blue raspberry but I don’t get it much so I stick with the favorites. I love vanilla & chocolate custard mixed with water ice tho! I like frozen yogurt. Like sweet frog is a fun place but I don’t really like yogurt. It doesn’t seem to have as strong of a bite when it’s frozen. I remember the craze though, I was born in 89 so I remember the 90’s a bit. Remember there was a Seinfeld episode about the frozen yogurt?

Build Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 5 7600 with cooler GPU: MSI mech oc 2x 6750xt RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 (2x16) 6000mhz MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte B650m Aorus elite ax SSD: Samsung evo plus 500gb NVM.2 HDD: Seagate barracuda 2tb PSU: Thermaltake Tough-power Grand RGB 650W 80+ Gold
Today was my second ever pc build and it’s not looking great so far. My pc doesn’t post at all and the DRAM light on my motherboard is on. Also, my graphics card won’t turn on. I switched it out with my old 1070 and it turned on but didn’t post.
Solutions i’ve tried: •Switching the DRAM slots •Switching graphics cards •plugging and unplugging eveything
I’ve never been more stressed in my life during this build and I have no idea what I did wrong
UPDATE: The graphics card did turn on for a bit until I hit the reset bios button on my motherboard

I can’t help but time to time, i feel like If I give in to my family’s tantrums, we will never improve our standard of living. I come from an average middle class family of six consisting of my grandma, my parents, my elder brother, my twin sister and me. My dad is an average government employee, most of what he earns goes towards loan repayments and living expenses & there isn’t much left in the end.
Here’s some context or background story you need to be aware of : We aren’t poor, so far i got what i asked for as long as it’s reasonable ( like a 110 cc commuter bike & a entry level Gaming laptop that I’ve been using for 5 years now). For the most part I’m grateful for the life i have. I realize that there are many who do not even have access to basic needs and there are those who don’t even realize how fortunate they are to be able to spend lakhs per month without any repercussions to maintain an extravagant lifestyle, I understand that the world is an unfair place and it’s on me to do what i can to make the most of what i have at my disposal. As someone who’s born into the middle of these two extremes, I’ve seen both of their lifestyles & I’m grateful for the wisdom i got (which neither the poor or filthy rich will get)
Anyway since i was a kid, Things haven’t always gone well for me, when i was growing up, i never had a stable loving family environment. I always had to step up to resolve conflicts all the time when i was kid myself. I had to learn the difficulties of life early on, my father isn’t a responsible man, he doesn’t have much concern about what the future holds. He’s a kind of brute that only cares about drinking & dining. in the present. When he’s got the cash he spends it without any respect for it & acts as if the world revolves around him. But when the money runs out, he doesn’t even bother to provide us with the things we need (not wants, but needs). My mom had to put up with this man, she had to step up and manage finances even if she herself wasn’t very good at it (she did what she could) and thanks to her we at-least have all of our needs accounted for.My mom made sure that our Education was a priority and made sure that we got a good education.
We do not have any generational wealth, or we used to until my dad like a moron he is, signed away the property my grandfather passed on because of his blind trust in a builder from the same caste. Long story short, he “sold” a high value property in the middle of the city for pennies, after creating thus problem in the first place he spent more money on lawyers to undo it only to learn his fuck up was irreversible. The property on my mother’s side doesn’t amount to much, and i pretty much grew up with the mindset that if i wanted anything in my life, i have to earn it myself. My mom despite the best she did, she too sometimes get carried away with spending. She has a taste for luxury and it’s a constant temptation for her. For some context, She’s a bit of a hoarder & buys things we don't need & just hoards stuff that hasn’t been used for ages. Her room looks like a store room & it doesn’t stop there. There’s a lot of excess stuff lying around in the home & to accommodate all this stuff we have to rent a bigger house. Even if it’s a relatively bigger house, the joke is i still don’t have my own room, because my mom & dad each take up their own room & the remaining room is shared by mom & grandma.
My brother moved abroad to study & work, he plans on settling abroad. The diploma he got isn’t that great, he studied at some shady college, in-fact it’s now blacklisted. He got a job with the of a consultancy. His line of work isn’t lucrative by any means and what little he earns goes towards paying off consultancy support fees & his living expenses. It’s been about 4 years since he’s been abroad and 2 years since he got a job he still has a lot of money to pay back and to this day the interest payments are deducted from my dad’s salary account to this day. I am trying not judge him, but i think he can do a whole lot better with his life. He isn’t a bad person, but he did inherit some worst traits from my dad and at times I’m disappointed in him.
Like my mother, my sister too has an affinity for expensive things. She is a Dentist now, she graduated fairly recently and now she’s doing her internship at her college and she is not making any money (she got a B-category seat and we had to pay a lot of money). We plan on taking another education loan for her Masters in an years time, hoping that my brother manages to pay off his loan, so that my sister’s loan can be approved.
Fortunately for me, i got into a reputed private University for to pursue my Master’s degree and fairly recently and i had to take an education loan with my dad as the co-applicant to fund my education. From next month, My education loan interest amount will be deducted from my dad’s account and things will get even tighter. I’m saying all this because i want you to get a clear understanding of my family’s financial situation.
Background story Tldr: My dad is the sole earner at this point & we’re living paycheck to paycheck. We do not have generational wealth to rely on.
Why did i get into a fight with my mom?
My mom thinks it’s time to get my sister married, and people are inquiring about my sister. So she’s feeling the peer pressure & wants my sister to get married and I’m objecting the idea because it’s absurd. She’s been discussing this idea with me, the youngest son (cause I’m the de facto head at this point) & I’m asking her to be patient & not give in to FOMO.
I want my sister to finish her Masters & achieve financial freedom before she got married. It’s not even like she’ll be too old to get married by that time. Me & my twin sister are 2 years old and if we’re to wait for three more years our financial situation will vastly improve when the three of us were to start earning. 25 is by no means too late for a wedding, but my mother seems to have trouble keeping her shit together and is going on and on about getting her married.
To make matters worse, 2 days ago my sister said she if she’s gonna married at minimum she’s going to spend One Crore rupees on her wedding. That’s bat shit insane to even consider provided we live pay check to pay check, drowning in debt with no generational wealth to rely on. And my mom took it seriously and she’s expecting me & my brother to foot the bill when she gets married. My mom keeps telling me about her miserable life, a tale i’ve heard about a million times & i’m now desensitized to it, She keeps telling me that marriage is a one time thing & when my sister looks back at her wedding, it has to be a memorable event.
I said in today’s day & age, thinking that marriage is a once in lifetime is kind of a joke. More importantly i told her that one has to maintain a lifestyle they can afford, looking back my sister has to be glad about her wedding, not regret that she spent a fuck load of money she didn’t have every-time she paid the Monthly EMI. My mom tried to counter that by asking me why my sister will foot the bill when me & my brother are there for her. I said that we will support my sister & make a generous contribution to her wedding (like an year’s salary) but by no means are we footing her entire bill. We aren’t getting her educated for nothing, if she wants an expensive lifestyle it’s up-to her to maintain it. Then my mom was like it’s actually the parent’s responsibility and dashed off into the kitchen. I was like if that’s what you think a parent’s responsibility is, then you already failed.
Why am i angry?
I’m trying to make peace with my parent’s mistakes, I realize that i have to make the most out of the life i have and I’m trying to undo their fuck ups, I really am. But entertaining these ridiculous ideas & letting my own sister fuck me over with her demands is something i cannot allow.
And the twist is, my sister is in a relationship with a guy from a different religion (which my family will not be cool with) and this is a fucking time bomb that i have to diffuse or at-least make the necessary arrangements to minimize the fallout. My family doesn’t know about this (ignorance is bliss) and I’m the one cursed with this knowledge. My sister doesn’t realize how much effort i put into advocating for her education and financial independence & she continues to make stupid statements like “ I want to at-least spend One Crore in my weeding” adding even more fuel to the dumpster fire I’m trying to suppress.
If i tell my sister the actuality of the situation I’m protecting her from, I’m afraid this idiot might elope & cause irreparable damage to her ties with my family, to make matters even worse if it doesn’t work out for her, she’ll have no place left to go. If she were to simply insist on finishing her Master’s first, at least by that time we’ll be doing financially better and at the very least she will actually have a greater say & control over own life to deal with ensuing consequences. We have no choice but to play the long game, to play our cards right & these idiots seem to complicate things when I’m trying to undo the fuck-ups.

“That’s Not Happening and It’s Good That It Is”

By Michael Anton February 26, 2021
Gaslighting getting you down? Feel like the regime has dialed the Megaphone up to, and past, eleven? You’re not crazy. It’s definitely happening and likely to get worse as our masters’ ability to cope with reality further worsens—or worse, they gain the complete and absolute control they seek. They’re both scornful and terrified of dissent, which explains why they incessantly shriek at us and lie to our faces.
So, to help you navigate the twitstorm, I present a guide to seven of the regime’s most common, oft-deployed lies. This is not meant to be comprehensive. I’m sure there are tactics they use that either I haven’t crystalized or that aren’t front-of-mind at the moment. I encourage others to expand the catalogue with their own observations. The better we can understand how they try to manipulate us, the better we can resist and counter it all.
Let’s start with the Unholy Trinity of ruling class horse manure. These first three are similar, but subtle differences determine the ways they’re used in differing circumstances.
The Law of Merited Impossibility
The coinage is Rod Dreher’s and goes back to the early debates on homosexual marriage. As Dreher formulates it, the Law of Merited Impossibility holds: “That will never happen, and when it does, boy will you [homophobes, transphobes, racists, sexists, whatever] deserve it.”
This Law is used, first, to disarm resistance to the latest leftist enthusiasm. Whatever the innovation is, it will have no adverse consequences. None! Puberty blockers and disfiguring surgeries have no downsides whatsoever. How dare you suggest they might!
Its second purpose is to dismiss out of hand “slippery slope” arguments—despite, or because of, the fact that every single such argument over the last twenty years at least has proved true. Worried that allowing people to “self-identify” as whatever sex they want will lead to pervy 50-year-old men exposing themselves to’ tween girls? Insist, loudly and indignantly, that that will NEVER happen and anyone who suggests it might is an alarmist bigot with a heart full of hate.
The third purpose is to enforce the new caste system. Those who get to impose fresh irrational indignities on the rest of us are the upper caste. Those who object, or even have reservations, are lower. The latter are not allowed to harbor, much less express, any doubts. Whatever humiliation the upper caste has planned for us, we deserve and must meekly accept. Hence when said pervy 50-year-old actually does start waving around “her” equipment in the girls’ locker room, if any parent dares object, let ’em have it with both barrels. That thing that ten seconds ago you said would “never” happen? Now it’s righteous punishment for the retrograde.
The Law of Merited Impossibility has done wonders for the Left in helping to ram through a wide variety of radical societal changes and cow into silence all opposition. It’s currently busy destroying girls’ and women’s sports, an outcome that we were assured would “never” happen. Though one wonders what the ladies did do to deserve it.
The Law is a bit passé, though, because our rulers rarely any longer feel the need to reassure normie Americans that everything will turn out OK, that the things we most fear won’t happen. Mostly, the holders of the Megaphone just skip to the second half, the angry insistence that we deserve it
The Celebration Parallax
A parallax is the apparent difference in position of the same object seen from different vantage points. For instance, an analogue speedometer that reads sixty miles per hour to the driver, but fifty to the passenger—even though the needle itself is only in one place.
The Celebration Parallax may be stated as: “the same fact pattern is either true and glorious or false and scurrilous depending on who states it.” In contemporary speech, on any “controversial” topic—or, to say better, regime priority—the decisive factor is the intent of the speaker. If she can be presumed to be celebrating the phenomenon under discussion, she may shout her approval from the rooftops. If not, he better shut up before someone comes along to shut him up.
Note also that the key distinction here is celebration versus non-celebration, not support versus opposition. One need not actually, clearly oppose the subject under discussion in order to be blameworthy. Declining or neglecting to celebrate it forcefully enough is enough. As in Stalin’s Russia, lack of enthusiastic clapping is regarded as opposition. The legitimacy of one’s right to state the same identical fact, in the same identical language, depends on who one is and what one thinks of it. Since the left presumes that all persons of color approve of the phenomena covered by the Celebration Parallax, the Parallax is really a test to distinguish allies from Deplorables.
To the best of my recollection, the origin of the Celebration Parallax arose from the need to defend “affirmative action,” a very unpopular policy since its inception. The party line therefore goes like this: People of color must be granted explicit preferences to overcome America’s “legacy of racism” so that we may “diversify” America’s power centers and end white male dominance, a move that—in addition to being necessary to address the country’s inherent racism—improves those institutions by infusing them with different and hitherto neglected points of view. Also, kids of color need “role models” who “look like themselves.”
But there is no such thing as “reverse discrimination,” which is itself a racist term, and there are no “quotas” (another racist term) whatsoever, but only “timetables,” “goals,” and measures to evaluate applicants and candidates “holistically.”
On no subject is the Parallax more prevalent than immigration. Depending on who’s doing the talking, the demographic transformation of the United States is either a glorious trend that portends a permanent Democratic majority and a more “vibrant” future, or else a “conspiracy theory” that is not happening in any way at all, no-how.
The Left insists that concerns from certain quarters that immigration policy in America (and Europe) amounts to a “great replacement” is a “dangerous,” “evil,” “racist,” “false” “conspiracy theory.” But a leftist New York Times columnist can write an article entitled “We Can Replace Them” and . . . nothing. [Redditor’s note: Michelle Goldberg calls for politically dispossessing white nationalists, not displacing white Americans from America.] Same fundamental point, except she’s all for it and her targets aren’t. A U.S. Senator can exult that demographic change will doom Republicans. [That is a link to a more or less openly white nationalist website.] Joe Biden himself can refer to an “unrelenting stream of immigration.” Except they’re celebrating it and calling for it. Anyone on the Right who uses the exact same words will not merely be denounced; the very fact pattern that is affirmed when Biden says it will be denied when the Rightist repeats it.
The Law of Salutary Contradiction
Which brings us to the Law of Salutary Contradiction, whose formulation is: “That’s not happening and it’s good that it is.” While the Law of Merited Impossibility applies to the future, this one is about the present. It’s what the ruling class immediately switches to after what they insisted would “never” happen is happening before everyone’s eyes.
Is the NSA spying on Tucker Carlson? That’s an insane conspiracy theory . . . which is also warranted by Tucker’s treasonous contacts with Russian officials as he seeks an interview with Putin.
Is the Biden Administration inviting in illegal immigrants, then putting them on military planes and shipping them to the heartland? Absolutely not . . . and these future Nobel Prize winners deserve their shot at the American Dream.
Once you learn to recognize this pattern, you see it everywhere. It is the cornerstone of ruling class rhetoric in the current year.
The Smails Exhortation
Turning from the Unholy Trinity, we see that the ruling class condemns all of us as entitled boors. In their eyes, we deserve nothing. We have no reasonable wants nor any just complaints. Our only role is to accept getting nothing and learning to like it.
Our masters bleat about “democracy” but have redefined the word to mean “getting exactly what we”—i.e., they—“want.” Any ostensibly “democratic” outcome that might result in us getting what we want is ipso facto illegitimate. Border wall? Fascist! Immigration enforcement? Racist and fascist! Law and order? Double racist and fascist! Better trade deals? Economically illiterate! An end to endless wars? Catastrophic! And also, somehow, “anti-Semitic.” Penis-free girls’ bathrooms? Transphobic!
No matter is too small, too local, too private, or too inconsequential to escape their gaze and slip their punishment. Bake the cake, bigot.
Mostly what they bleat, though, is anti-American, anti-white, anti-conservative, anti-Christian, anti-rural, anti-Southern, anti-Red-state, anti-redneck, anti-working-class hate. Every media organ and cultural citadel blares this message loudly and incessantly.
The purpose is hard to figure. On one hand, it’s demoralizing, which certainly serves ruling class ends, and it fires up their coalition. On the other hand, if you’re trying to boil a frog, it’s best not to tell him the plan, as he might try to jump out of the pot.
Which brings us to:
The Lie-Back Imperative
This tactic, and the next one, are related to what Steve Sailer has called “The War on Noticing.” [Steve Sailer is a white supremacist.]
The regime knows it’s in a difficult rhetorical position. The heart of its argument is that some people are inherently innocent and good while others are inherently guilty and bad and must be treated accordingly. To ears insufficiently attuned to this new understanding of justice, this can sound unjust. Tying moral worth to circumstances of birth? Nottreating people equally? Punishing the living for the sins of the dead?
Why all this is—contrary to appearances, logic, and common sense—“just” requires considerable explanation. To the extent that people “get it,” they will sharply divide between those who say that the “advantaged” have it coming and those who object “No, I don’t.”
The problem for the regime, therefore, is that while its message is very effective at egging on its own side, it can be equally effective at alarming and rousing its targets. The ideal solution would be to come up with a public message that rallies the regime’s base while lulling its targets, but this turns out to be very difficult, if not impossible.
Another option is to forbid the targets from speaking up—hence the Celebration Parallax.
But the regime’s preferred mode is not merely to allow its targets to speak, but to require it—so long as the targets deny the regime apparatchik said what she said. Hence the response to “You are evil and deserve what’s coming to you” must be “You don’t think ill of me and wish me no harm.” Every punch in the face must be publicly rationalized, by the victim, as a massage. The purpose is partly to bully the frog into staying in the pot and partly a matter of humiliation. In the oft-quoted words of Anthony Daniels, “a society of emasculated liars is easy to control.”
A great many “conservatives” are not merely willing but eager to play along. Indeed, whole institutions of the establishment “Right” do little else but reassure their ostensible constituency that the Left not only doesn’t mean its proto-genocidal rhetoric but isn’t even saying it.
It is an odd feature of the current year that calling an avowed enemy a liar—publicly insisting that her plain words could not possibly mean what they plainly say—not only fails to provoke an angry denial but is welcomed by the liar herself. Anything to keep the regime’s targets somnambulant for as long as possible. The more Americans who wake up and realize that contemporary leftism is a revenge plot with themselves as its targets, the more will object and try to stop it. This is what the regime, at present, most fears and is trying to prevent.
The Enmity Counteraccusation
This one is perhaps the most brazen. As I put it elsewhere, “the enemy calls you its enemy for recognizing its enmity.”
As regime hacks spew vile, borderline—and sometimes explicitly—violent rhetoric at you, they will immediately wheel and counterattack if you dare object. [Some guy on Twitter suggested Mr. Anton get the rope for predicting that George Soros would initiate a coup against the Trump administration ahead of the 2020 election.] Don’t appreciate being called evil because of your race? Then you are “divisive”! Dare put up your hands to block an incoming punch? That’s violence! You’re just supposed to take it.
They’re enemies who treat you like enemies while they insist that you treat them as friends. At least, though, unlike the housebroken “Right,” they stab you in the front.
A related point is that if you so much as speculate as to where their insane vitriol might lead the country, you will be accused of wishing for that outcome. It’s entirely possible that decades of anti-American, anti-white, anti-Christian animosity, coupled with nation-destroying trade, immigration and foreign policies, will not lead to civil war. Then again, it’s entirely possible that they might. If they do, the ruling class and the Left will bear the blame. Naturally, though, they will blame us.
Indeed, they already are. Attempts to head off such a conflict by warning about it are treated as provocations intended to produce said conflict. One can be forgiven for wondering if their plan is to start it and then say we started it, sort of like insisting Poland triggered the Second World War by shooting back.
“You’re worthless, baby; and if you even think of trying to leave me, I’ll kill you”
Which brings us to the last. Deplorable Americans are loudly and incessantly said to be the worst people in the history of the planet, pure unadulterated evil, with no legitimate concerns, interests or grievances.
Well, OK. Then why live with us? Why treat as anathema even the most moderate, banal, attempt to allow some measure of federalism and local control?
There can only be two answers: either our masters know (or intuit) deep down that we can live without them but they can’t live without us, or else they want to keep us around to administer what they view as deserved punishment.
Being neither a psychiatrist nor a theologian, I could not say whether the roots of this behavior are psychotic or demonic, but in this layman’s judgement, it exhibits key characteristics of both.
But understand this: they hate you and want you cancelled and ostracized, or at least utterly subservient and obedient. You owe them no consideration. Their every argument, every sentence, every word are proffered in bad faith. As Mary McCarthy said of Lilian Hellman, “Every word she writes is a lie—including ‘and’ and ‘the.’”
The regime is powerful, which means we must calibrate our resistance carefully. But to think clearly, our minds must be free. Which requires understanding its rhetoric and seeing through it. I hope this short guide is useful in that effort.

Broke College Student
Hi all I’m new to this subreddit so please let me know if I’ve come to the wrong place. Long story short I ran up a credit card my first year away at college to support myself. I did work while studying but even those four jobs weren’t enough to help with tuition, board, flights, food etc. Now not only do I have to pay off that card but I will be briefly unemployed while I job search at home now that the term is ending. If you have any advice on how I can quickly make money please tell me and if you’d like to donate my Cashapp is Mbcceo513.

Broke College Student
Hi all I’m new to this subreddit so please let me know if I’ve come to the wrong place. Long story short I ran up a credit card my first year away at college to support myself. I did work while studying but even those four jobs weren’t enough to help with tuition, board, flights, food etc. Now not only do I have to pay off that card but I will be briefly unemployed while I job search at home now that the term is ending. If you have any advice on how I can quickly make money please tell me and if you’d like to donate my Cashapp is Mbcceo513.

Broke College Student
Hi all I’m new to this subreddit so please let me know if I’ve come to the wrong place. Long story short I ran up a credit card my first year away at college to support myself. I did work while studying but even those four jobs weren’t enough to help with tuition, board, flights, food etc. Now not only do I have to pay off that card but I will be briefly unemployed while I job search at home now that the term is ending. If you have any advice on how I can quickly make money please tell me and if you’d like to donate my Cashapp is Mbcceo513.

Hello!
I've come to try and get some help regarding an audio issue that I have while playing XIV. The audio during any combat situation (Instances, Trials, Dungeons, Raids) gets laggy or distorted to the point where I have to mute the audio just to get anything done. It was so bad at one point (during 6.1 or 6.2) that the audio distortion (seemed to be the reason?) crashed my client.
I've seen that this problem has been around for quite some time and I've been through base 6.0 with it just fine, it seemed to have started with 6.1 and onwards. Nowadays I can struggle through the game but you can imagine not being able to use sound at all has really soured my enjoyment and desire to play.
Here's the sort of things I've tried:
--Lowering graphical quality to potato. --Muting everything but system sounds --Switching to Direct X 9 --Demo/Trial the new Surround Sound system thingie --Uninstalled/Reinstalled XIV --Updated Sound Drivers --Tested Sound Card --Blood Sacrifice
So far the audio distortion only really happens in combat scenarios, as cutscenes or just hanging around town or in fields seems to be okay.
Here's a little bit on the specs of my PC:
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X GPU: RTX 3070 Ti Ram: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB Motherboard: ROG Strix 570-I
Every other game I play runs smooth. I've heard that there's some kind of audio calculation problem that's server-side and realistically nothing I can do, but I figured I'd try a last-ditch effort to reach out to the community for help. Apologies if this isn't the right place to do this. Thank you in advance for any help you're willing to give.

Context: I am paying off a good chunk of debt and a friend gifted me approx £7K for some of this to ease a stressful point last year. I completely intend to pay this back over time, and once my credit card is cleared in approx 6-8 months ideally, I can start putting amounts into some form of savings account towards the £7K.
This friend is happy for me to do something like use the money for us to do things when she visits next (she isn't in the UK) so I'd like to be building some balance towards it as soon as I can.
I'm a low earner on minimum wage + low self employment profit with no savings other than a small personal pension. I do have a NatWest online saver account with nothing in it currently. I put funds aside each month towards tax into a NS&I account. This gives me just enough distance to not be able to access it too quickly but it still can act as an emergency fund if need be. Since I withdraw all the balance annually and it's under £2K I don't worry about this accruing no interest.
Recommendations for a best place to start putting something like monthly amounts of £200 into that is low to mid risk but might give me something of a return as I work on building that £7K up?

Going LIVE with the MFL Snb 52 Card!! 🥊
Will someone cause an upset??
Which Maniac will take the MFL GOLDS HOME? Only one way to find out!! 🏆
https://www.twitch.tv/themaniacfightleague/
@everyone

ufc #ufc4 #gaming #gamingleague

Hello there! We're a couple excited about our upcoming first-time trip to Japan in November for a delightful three-week adventure. We would be extremely grateful if you could lend your expert eyes to review and provide feedback on our itinerary. A little about us: We're in our late 20s and have a deep appreciation for delicious food, beautiful accommodation, breathtaking nature, and exploring charming local towns. We're not particularly fond of bustling cities or crowded places, preferring to take things at our own pace and truly appreciate each location. We will fly into Tokyo and leave from Osaka. *We're still not sure about days 13 to 15 in Hiroshima since the attractions we've come across don't seem too appealing to us. It would be fantastic if you could recommend some places to stay and visit between Tokyo and Osaka if you have some :)
Day 1- Day 4 : 📍 Tokyo

• Day 1: Arrival in Tokyo
  • We'll touch down in Tokyo around 3 pm.
  • Activating our JR pass.
  • Getting a Sim card and WiFi.
  • Heading to our hotel located in the Shinjuku area.
• Day 2:
  • Explore Tokyo
• Day 3:
  • Leaving Tokyo yo Hakone

Day 4 - Day 7: 📍Hakone

• Day 4:
  • Taking a train to Saiko.
  • Exploring the traditional Japanese village, Saiko Iyashi-no-Sato Nenba.
  • Hike up for view over Mont fuji
• Day 5
  • Spend the day around the hotel and surrounding
• Day 6:
  • 30mins drive to Ashigarashimo District (we are thinking about taking a taxi but would appreciate some recommendation)
  • Hike around Lake Ashi
  • Stop by Narukawa Art Museum
  • 30 mins drive back to hotel
• Day 7:
  • Rest day and enjoy the day at the hotel and surrounding

Day 8 - Day 12 :📍Kyoto

• Day 8
  • Head to Kyoto with Shinkansen, check into the hotel and spend time around the hotel
• Day 9:
  • Kiyomizudera Temple
  • Gion Neighbourhood
  • Hokanji Temple Pagoda
• Day 10:
  • Fushimi Inari Taisha
  • Nishiki Market
• Day 11: - Free day - recommendation appreciated
• Day 12:
  • Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
  • Tenryuji Temple
  • Zen Garden

* Day 13 - Day 15 : 📍 Hiroshima

• Day 13:
  • Heading to Hiroshima
  • Atomic Bomb Dome
  • Hiroshima Castle
  • Shukkeien Garden
• Day 14: Miyajima
  • Hike to Mount Misen

Day 15 - Day 20: 📍Osaka

• Day 15: - Heading to Osaka
• Day 16:
  • Explore Osaka
• Day 17:
  • Day trip to Nara
• Day 18:
  • Day trip to Kobe
• Day 19:
  • Explore Osaka
• Day 20:
  • Explore Osaka and prepare for the flight home.

Thank you in advance for the help 🙏

In the end, I will reign supreme.

Welcome to /Paladins' Champion of the Week, a place to celebrate the Champions of the Realm. Share your fan-art, gameplay videos, and memes. Tell your funniest and most exciting stories! Talk about the best card loadouts and strategies, and tell us why you love the Champion of the Week! This week, we're celebrating
​Vivian
The Cunning
Affiliation: ​Magistrate
Lore:
Rapidly rising through the ranks of the Magistrate, Vivian’s clever, persistent scheming got her appointed to the Deepwerks facility, where she was the first to recognize the military potential of the research they were conducting. In the swirling chaos of the war with the Resistance, she sees only the opportunity to advance her station in life. Equipped with some of the most advanced crystal-powered weaponry ever created, she joins the battle not to prove herself or to follow orders, but to find and silence the lone witness of her true plans.
Class: ​Damage
Health: 2200
Abilities:

Name	Skill Type	Description	Cooldown
Light Machine Gun	Direct Damage	An automatic machine gun that deals 165 damage every 0.14s. Your Movement Speed is reduced by 50% while firing. Has a maximum Ammo count of 70 and is fully effective up to 95 units.	-
Precision Sights	Utility	Look down the barrel of your gun and increase your Accuracy. Reduce your Movement Speed by 50% while using Precision Sights. This Movement Speed reduction does not stack with firing your gun.	-
Deflector Shield	Shield	Project a Shield in front of your gun. This Shield has 1200 Health and lasts 6s or until destroyed. Affected by Wrecker.	13s
Sensor Drone	Deployable / Debuff	Throw out a deployable Sensor that Reveals enemies within 45 units. You can have up to 2 of these Sensors out at a time. Each Sensor Drone has 250 Health and is affected by Bulldozer.	10s
Sentinels	Deployable / Area Damage	Deploy 2 Sentinel Drones that fire energy blasts where you shoot your Light Machine Gun. Each Sentinel fires every 1s, dealing 150 damage in a 12-unit-radius area, and has 1600 Health. These Sentinel Drones last until you are killed or they are destroyed.	-

Talents and Cards:

Name	Ability	Description	Cooldown
[Default] Suspect Everyone	Armor	The Health of Deflector Shield is increased by 350 and its Cooldown is reduced by half if it is destroyed by an enemy.	9s
[Level 2] Booby Trap	Sensor Drone	Your Sensor Drones explode, dealing 600 damage and applying a Knockback to those hit when an enemy is within 20 units.	-
[Level 8] Opportunity in Chaos	Weapon	After firing continuously for 2s, gain 10% increased damage.	-
Contingency	Deflector Shield	Increase Deflector Shield's Health by {125/125}.	-
Plans Within Plans	Deflector Shield	Heal for {20/20} every 1s while Deflector Shield is active.	-
Scapegoat	Deflector Shield	While Deflector Shield is active {8/8}% of damage dealt to you is instead dealt to the Shield.	-
Unfair Advantage	Deflector Shield	Increase the duration of Deflector Shield by {0.8/0.8}s.	-
Controlling Nature	Precision Sights	Reduce the Cooldown of Sensor Drone by {0.08/0.08}s for every enemy hit while Precision Sights is active.	-
Eyes on the Prize	Precision Sights	Reduce your weapon recoil by {20/20}% while using Precision Sights.	-
Hidden Reserves	Precision Sights	Every weapon shot made while Precision Sights is active has an {8/8}% chance to not consume Ammo.	-
Lightweight Alloy	Precision Sights	Bring up Precision Sights {15/15}% faster.	-
Crack the Whip	Sensor Drone	Gain {8/8}% Lifesteal against enemies Revealed by Sensor Drone.	-
Informants	Sensor Drone	Heal for {85/85} after an enemy that is Revealed by your Sensor Drone dies.	-
Joyless Eyes	Sensor Drone	Increase the range at which Sensor Drone Reveals targets by {10/10}%.	-
Nowhere to Hide	Sensor Drone	Sensor Drone's Reveal persists for {0.7/0.7}s after an enemy leaves its Reveal range.	-
Numbed Heart	Armor	Increase your maximum Health by {50/50}.	-
One Step Ahead	Armor	Increase your Movement Speed by {4/4}%.	-
Runic Ammunition	Weapon	Gain {4/4}% Lifesteal.	-
Unchecked Ambition	Weapon	Hitting an enemy with a weapon shot has a {12/12}% chance to not consume Ammo.	-

You can find an archive of every Champion of the Week here.
Join us next week when we talk about ​Vora!

A place for members of WillyWonkaCards to chat with each other

Picture/Timestamp here: https://imgur.com/a/RWHBNgN Looking to sell or possibly trade some PSA slabs. (Mixing cash with trade would also be fine) Prices include shipping costs as well as G&S fee's. Prices based off recent ebay sales.

• Rayquaza Vmax PSA 10 $420.00
• Delta Species Heracross PSA 9 $65.00

Things I would be interested in trading for (Only looking for NM cards)

• Coro Coro Mew
• Heracross Neo Genesis 1st Edition Holo
• Stamped Reverse Holo Delta Species Rayquaza's
• Emerald Holo or Reverse Holo Rayquaza
• Reverse Holo Alakazam Skyridge
• Rocket's Scyther Ex Team Rocket Returns
• Rocket's Scizor Ex Team Rocket Returns
• Gengar & Mimikyu GX (Normal and Alt)
• Dragonite Alt Art
• Mega Sableye & Tyranitar GX Alt Art
• Umbreon GX from Hidden Fates Shiny Vault
• Mewtwo GX from Hidden Fates Shiny Vault
• Shining Mew from Shining Legends
• Umbreon V Alt Art
• Celebi V Alt Art
• Beedrill V Alt Art
• Aerodactyl V Alt Art
• SR Gold Snorlax from Chilling Reign
• Dragonite V Alt Art
• Pokemon Center exclusive Celebrations ETB
• Hidden Fates ETB
• Sealed booster boxes (Sw/Sh era)

Feel free to make an offer though if you'd like :)

I just purchased the parts to build my new PC and want to reuse some of my old components for an HTPC. I don't need any storage because I have a custom built NAS running OMV. I plan to run Kodi but would also like the ability to stream games from my PC, which I think would be no issue with the 1060 6GB that I already own.
Are there any issues with these components?
PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	Purchased For $0.00
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler	$44.95 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI B450I GAMING PLUS MAX WIFI Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard	$129.99 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory	Purchased For $0.00
Storage	Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	Purchased For $0.00
Video Card	Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6 GB Video Card	Purchased For $0.00
Case	Silverstone SG13 V2 Mini ITX Tower Case	$64.98 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Silverstone SFX 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply	$113.36 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$353.28
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-05-28 13:53 EDT-0400

I am at my wits end right now. During the pandemic I foolishly drove myself into the ground trying to restart my failing self employed business, leading to 33k in personal debt and 55k in business debt. I never carried credit card debt ever in my life until the pandemic. I'm not a crazy frivolous spender. But during the pandemic I really was in denial that I had to fold my business and get a job.
I finally woke up and got a decent paying job, but living in California is making it SO HARD to get ahead of this stuff.
I still have a bit of my side hustle going - but the income JUST makes the minimum payments from the business credit cards, so it's stable at the moment but not changing anytime soon. At any moment my one client could discontinue my monthly service and I wouldn't be able to meet the business card minimums.
My take home from my 9-5 is about $4200
I am going to have to move out of my current cheap place and minimum rents in my area are like $1400 for a ROOM in a shared house (San Diego), and that doesn't include utilities. So say it's going to be around $1500 at least.
Life expenses are like another
Rent/Living: 1500 Car: gas (250 bc $4.60 a gallon), maintenance (20), insurance (64): $350 Groceries: $500 Restaurants: $150 Peloton (MY ONLY FORM OF SANITY): $90 Streaming/entertainment: $110 (Could def cut this by some) Pet insurance (92) + Food + Vet e-fund: $182 Starbucks (Flame away but can't drink drip coffee): $150 Credit Card Minimums: $1030
That leaves me with like ZERO room. In the past few months I had my car completely die on me which cost several thousand, and an ER visit for palpitations (probably because I'm so stressed!). Every month it seems like there's a new disaster putting me more and more behind. I had skin cancer earlier last year as well (gone now thankfully).
Even if I lived like a monk, I would be really behind. And I'd have to live like a monk for a very long time.
I considered Door Dash but as a female and everyone getting shot these days for going to the wrong door, I'm very hesitant.
I don't want to drop my dog's health insurance, I'm single and he's one of the only sources of joy in my life at the moment.
The peloton is important to me as it keeps my depression and anxiety at bay and is good for my overall health. I use it REGULARLY. I'm obsessed with it.
I could axe starbucks but it's the only thing getting me out of bed in the am because my life feels a bit hopeless right now. And I'm in such a hole, axing it seems like it would be a drop in an ocean.
I really have NO assets. I live fairly simply, hardly ever buy myself fancy things, haven't bought clothes in like a year, stopped going out except once a week with friends and sticking to my $150 going out budget, but I have no retirement savings. Credit Card debt and minimums have me in quicksand, and the California cost of living is ridiculous.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Solution I am considering: I have the opportunity to move home. My parents are truly very supportive, I have a decent relationship with them, and I used to go home to visit for a few months out of the year throughout my 20's and 30's until I wasn't making enough money to travel a lot (and got a dog making long term visits not feasible). Additionally, I'm blessed in that my parents live in a nice vacation area.
Another chapter to the story: My parents have put our family home on the market. They aren't selling it to sell it, they're selling it to get the price they want, and listing it with an exclusive agency (it won't appear on Zillow, etc). They've told me they will help me with the debt if it sells. But, it's not a guarantee.
So, to be honest, unless my parents do something crazy I'll have a decent inheritance to fall back on for retirement.
HOWEVER: My main goal right now is to right my own ship, and that may mean moving across the country and moving home at age 39. I am single and life is just NOT stacking up very well for me at the moment, and I've been pretty despressed about it. I've considered bankruptcy, but if I move home, I can pay off my personal debt in a year (according the Dave's snowball calculator). I'm not sure what to do about the business debt.
Also, if I need to live like a monk to get out of this hole and totally stop going out with friends etc, might as well live like a monk where I don't have to pay rent. I'm getting really tired of constantly declining invites from my friends to concerts, vacations, even cheap things like baseball games because it would blow my budget.
Tips? Flames?

Hi, this will be a rough recap of one of my latest games, that until now was by far my longest map in any Age of Wonders game.
I put a quick comment on mechanics and AI behaviour at the end for those interested, for anything specific that happened during this game you will either have to guess from my story or ask me in the comments, but that would end in another three pages of gameplay description.
​
I am terrible at telling good stories, as a result this will be more like a collection of facts and events that happened during this specific game, I will try to make it entertaining though. This one map took me over a week to finish and I sadly don't have any save from the first 100 turns or any saves between 125 and 200, this will be purely based on the post game timeline and my memory.
First of course the map setup. I didn't want to play the actual demon prince realm and made my own, the settings were:
7 Players, normal difficulty, game speed set to fast, Continents, Demonic Realm, Demon Prince, Crystalline Abundance, Wonderous Past and Distrusting Locals
The Demon Prince is Karavar the Willbreaker, an Orcoid Champion with Strong and Ferocious as racial traits and Dark culture with Scions of Evil and Ruthless Raiders.
His ingame personality was Demonic Warlord. Not really a surprise with his overall role. You would think, this made him fairly aggressive, but I will get to that later.
Due to the game setting Karavar starts with Demonkin, Supergrowth and 3 cities, quite a strong start and any player would crush a map rather fast with these bonuses, not the AI though.
As for my empire I decided to play with the Chosen Destroyers trait. My full setup was:
Feline, Resolute, Elusive, Barbarian, Chosen Destroyers, Mana Channelers
For anyone unfamiliar with the Chosen Destroyers trait, this trait limits you to one city, but gives additional gold, mana and knowledge per razed city. You are unable to gain any cities that are not your capital and have a permanent -300 relation modifier with all other rulers and free cities.
My plan for this specific map was to be a vassal of the first leader I would meet, this just happened to be the Demon Prince, as his third city was right next to my own capital.
The other 5 leaders included 2 of my own creations and 3 of the premade leaders which I will not explain in full. I will however quickly list their names and general playstyle:
Sundren, who I can't say a lot about as she died first and also quite early. Anyone who played AoW3 knows her, even though her gameplay and role changed in the time between the games.
Alfred Elderstone, the first premade human champion in the list, who went heavily into order and chaos, but chose Wightborn as his major transformation.
Taiena Greyblood is an odd one. She is not one of my own creations and was in multiple games so far, but she is also not a selectable premade leader. As for her empire she leads a group of elven barbarians and also chose mainly order tomes. She has underground adaptation and spawned directly under Karavar's capital.
Assasa Soulreaper, one of my leaders, she chose shadow as her main focus and had managed to get Wightborn before she died. She spawned behind Karavar's third city from my position.
Florissa Windsong, my other previous leader, her affinities were spread over order, nature and astral, she leads a group of underground dwarfs and spawned close to Alfred.
​
​
Now that the general information is out of the way I can start with the actual game.
As mentioned I started this map with the goal to win as any AI's vassal, either through them winning the game or myself finishing it for them. It ended up being a mix of both and a good learning opportunity as to how the AI can behave.
Just like everyone would I sent out my scout on the first day, they were going east and on the second day I found Karavar's scout and also one of his cities. It was directly next to my own and left little room for expansion in that direction. With my initial goal in mind I decided to immediately declare a rivalry against him, only to use it for a fabrcated grievance, I wanted a short war that wouldn't tank my reputation right from the start.
The next few days went by, my scout running across the land and my small army clearing the surrounding area of my capital. On day 5 I chose to not wait for the fabricated grievances against Karavar, this war would only last one day anyways and I declared said war, only to immediately propose a vassalage. He obviously agreed and I had achieved the first goal of my general plan, becoming a vassal.
Being his vassal I also got information on what was happening at the other end of the world and met Sundren, who had her city right next to his other non-captial city. At this point they were not at war, but this would soon change.
On day 8 I decided to place an outpost at Karavar's border to secure the area between our cities for myself.
Everyone went on with their own business until day 12, that day Karavar and Sundren would start their war. Having cities this close it was only a matter of time until Karavar would drag us into the first major war of this world. I was happy with clearing marauders, while he marched his main force toward Sundren.
In the meantime I had a few free cities I would need to take care of. The free city of my own people to the west was my first target and not wanting any vassals, I brought my army to them and crushed their defenses. I obviously burned the city to the ground.
While all of this was happening we slowly met the other rulers and most of them were not happy to meet us. Who can blame them, I was bound to burn their cities to the ground and Karavar was after all a strong Demon Prince and a warmonger. Most of them quickly declared us their rivals.
(On day 8 we met Taiena, on day 13 Assasa, on day 16 Florissa and on day 24 Alfred)
Florissa built an outpost close to my city, she would settle there soon and be pulled into the endless wars that were yet to come.
We were now on day 21, Whundhart the city to my west was already a pile of ash and on this day Karavar fell for the first time, he himself had to withdraw, but not his army. He quickly returned two days later.
On day 26 Sundren fell on the battlefield, it would take another 13 days until she had to leave this realm. All this time I was keeping myself busy with exploration and building outposts on important materials or even just gold and mana. I knew they would later yield good rewards and strategic value.
On day 39 it finally happened Karavar had drawn first blood and Sundren was defeated. We had however started a few other wars in the meantime. There was still a lot to be done.
​
My next personal goal had been Assasa, she was slowly growing her empire to the east and her cities and the free cities between us were just what I needed to grow my own economy. After I just took the free city of Goldbank, her troops came and forced me to flee. On day 41 the city was hers instead of mine and I would not let that go unpunished.
Karavar had started a war with Taiena, her domain was right under his own after all and while he would take his sweet time to finish her off, I prepared for an assault on Assasa.
By now we are on day 54 and I just got Goldbank back under my control, currently razing it to the ground.
Karavar as well as Assasa had a lot of cities and most of them were merely vassals as they could not hold onto so many cities at ones. Remember that Karavar started with 3 cities and also got everything he and Sundren had built during their war. Assasa on the other hand got a lot of free cities and had to mange those somehow, so she released some as vassals to keep her own city count lower.
Remeber that Florissa had build a city (Brisway) right next to mine and Karavar's in the south. We were obviously at war with her and while I had my revenge on Assasa, Karavar took Florissa's city, she however had already built another outpost on a peninsula just north from my city. He burned Brisway down and would rebuild it on day 85 as Hollow. This outpost again would turn into a city soon and this time it was my turn to take it.
As Florissa had just build so close to my border and positioned her armies their, I was forced to abandon my plans for Assasa, instead Karavar would deal with her. He also rebuilt Goldbank after I burned it down, now known only as Dominance, this city would grow under his empire.
On day 76, while I was fighting off invading armies from Klarissa and if my memory doesn't betray me Alfred as well, Karavar managed to defeat Assasa. With her out of the way and her former cities vassalized, he could have focused on the remaining 3 leaders.
​
Quick reminder, that while all this happened in the south he also had to deal with Taiena in the north west, for some reason he took his sweet time killing her once and for all and it would take another 66 days until she was finally defeated.
It's not that he didn't have the army to do it, quite the opposite, by now he had multiple full armies of five or six stacks in the north and south at his disposal, but decided to let them sit in his cities instead of moving them toward his enemies.
I finally managed to conquer Florissa's city Flowing Fields to the north on day 84 and as always quickly razed it. By now Florissa and Alfred had an alliance. Alfred would often send small raiding parties to my undefended outposts in the west, as they were close to him and both would be sending whole armies to my northern border, where I had just razed Florissa's city.
By day 100 no one else had died, everyone was just occupied by the same battles as before. For me this meant warding of Alfred and Florissa, because Florissa was too far away and Alfred was too strong to deal with on my own.
This would continue through many days up until day 133, when Alfred resettled Florissa's destroyed town at my northern border. I immediately went to this new city, happy to gain new resources as my economy was really depending on the stupidity of our enemies. I had to retreat first, but after strategically thinning out his armies I could get back to the city itself. This however took quite some time, as he would constantly send new armies my way.
So it happened that on day 142 Karavar had defeated Taiena, while I was still struggling to claim this new city. My time however came two days later, when Alfred finally had nothing left he could throw at me and I could finally burn this new city to the ground.
​
This sadly marked the time Karavar would become quite complacent, with all his remaining foes at a good distance and many of his vassals between them, he chose to sit in his two main cities, one being his capital and the other being right next to me. By now he had more than seven full armies in both cities and could have easily crushed everyone on this world, but he just sat there, doing nothing.
(Literally nothing, his armies would not even move between turns, but he still managed to make my game almost crash everytime he had to move.)
Now I had to rely on my own troops and Karavar would not even flinch when Alfred started his 3 magical victory. I was still preoccupied with defending my own city and outposts and ushing into Alfred's domain proofed to be a major problem multiple times, as his armies were often stronger and more numerous than mine, but I managed to stop all of his attempts at a magic victory.
Florissa and Alfred tried to rebuild the city on my peninsula multiple times after this whole ordeal started, but in the end they just made my own economy stronger when they tried. This allowed my to persevere all of the trouble they gave me and allowed me to build stronger armies myself.
Alfred had a free city between his empire and mine, which at some point was turned over to Karavar, this free city was build in a way that left exactly one province in its middle. As this province was a far better starting point for my invasions I decided to place an outpost right there.
My other outposts that Alfred had besieged multiple times were on my continent and even though they made travelling a bit quicker I would still have to embark everytime and get through the whole free city, where Alfred's troops would already be waiting for me long before I arrived.
This new outpost enabled many of my later invasions and even though I lost it for some time I would get it back, when I needed it most.
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The whole back and forth between myself and Alfred finally has moved in my favor on day 184, 42 days after the last leader was defeated, when I managed to capture his closest city. This city housed one of his magical nodes that I destroyed many times so far to stop his magic victories.
Just after Florissa rebuilt her city at my border again and it would be razed just as quickly as she had build it.
Around day 185 to 190 Karavar decided to intervene again and marched on Florissa. His armies conquering one of her cities on day 204.
On day 207 I got Alfred's second city under my control and you can all imagine what I did (it gets old, saying I razed it over and over, but that's how it is with chosen destroyers). He had an outpost next to this city and promptly built a city right there, while I was still around to conquer it right after. The only problem was, I could not do it, my army was too weak from his last city and the reinforcement would not come for a few days. I had to retreat. This allowed him to rebuilt his former empire as he also resettled the ruins of the first city that fell.
We are now on day 230, Alfred has rebuilt most of his empire to the best of his abilities, given the time and money he had to spend on rebuilding instead of his armies, which unfortunately were still a force to be reckkoned with.
After losing her city to Karavar Florissa was stuck in her capital, Karavar just above her and while I was dealing with Alfred Karavar would soon break Florissa's final line of defense and she fell on day 232. That same day I razed Alfred's newest city and we were one step closer to victory.
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At this point it was only a matter of time until either Karavar or I would crush Alfred. I built a new outpost closer to his cities as my army was still weakened from the last fight and I would need new troops as soon as possible. Day 240 marked the defeat of his second to last city and I could finally set my eyes on his capital. Just a tiny bit longer, just one more fight.
Now sieging his capital it would only take a few days until this would finally be over and with one final stand his forces were defeated on the 248th day and Karavar and I stood victorious, ruling the entire realm.
I still had my capital and he had everything else, any free city that might have been left unchecked would have fallen soon after, but at that moment I was just happy this nightmare was over.
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Sorry, quick mechanical and gameplay stuff at the end, anyone just interested in the story, that this map entailed can stop here, everyone who wants to read me rambling about the AI a bit can go on. XD
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I wrote this as a story, but from how long each death took, I think it is clear that even a Demon Prince like Karavar set to the highest difficulty against normal difficulty AIs is quite slow when it comes to killing other AI-leaders. As soon as he was close enough it would only take a few back and forth fights and he would eventually just crush them through sheer numbers alone, but when a leader was farther away or free cities were between them he would not move toward them for long periods.
I don't actually know why it took him 60 turns to defeat Taiena, but from how often I just forgot she existed or thought she should have died by now, I can easily say that the AI is too passive when it comes to each other.
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Karavar had so many units that my game would freeze and almost crash everytime he took his turn and I'm glad that I play single player on classic turns as this would have either crashed my game every turn or I would have had to wait 10 minutes each turn to make my own moves.
I guess the fact that he had this many units and my game lagging on his turns consistently might have added to his passiveness, but this really should not be the standard for a game like this. Other leaders act similar and those are not related to lag or amount of units.
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Like I said in the story he didn't even flinch when Alfred started multiple magic victories. Had I not stopped them consistently this game would have been A) like 100 turns shorter and B) a loss for me as Karavar didn't do shit in that time.
I also noticed this passive behaviour when magic victories would start their countdown in another game I played a few days prior, which I actually lost, because I couldn't get to the leader and everyone else just sat in their own territory moving units from one tile to another.